"Eating Right" is Eating Wrong... and other nutritional tidbits

Not sure how many of you have the Safeway supermarket chain where you live, but for those who do, here's a major warning: Stear clear of their store brand "Eating Right" frozen dinners.
- They taste simply awful.
- They have a ton of crap in them nutritionally that make them anything but "Right" for your body.

And regardless of what supermarkets you have, let me offer you a short and pretty solid list of what you should look for when food shopping:

• Partially-hydrogenated oils, as I've explained here, are evil.
• If the product contains lots and lots of items you can't pronounce, that should tell you something.
• Got a ton of salt (>700mg per serving)? That also shows a lack of creative seasoning.
• Cottonseed oil? No health-conscious companies use that anymore. It's horrible for you!
• Lots of saturated fat? Not good.
• Tons of sugar? Your body isn't going to be happy for long.
• Little or no fiber? You may enjoy the food while you eat it, but it's not going to keep you full for long!

These wisdom-bits above are admittedly likely old-hat for many of you, and in case you're curious, they're pretty non-controversial hints from reputable sources like Nutrition Action Newsletter and Harvard Medical School Letter and so on.

And let's face it -- most of us DO know when we're eating something good (whole wheat bread, broccoli, oranges, etc.) and when we're not (Ben & Jerry's, Triple-cheese pepperoni pizza, and so on). Our goal, IMHO, should not be to eliminate the 'evil' in our food per se, but to balance it out with a lot more of the good stuff.

Since I'm striving to lose 15 pounds and have more energy each day, I'll use this blog entry as a public reminder to myself :D. Hope it's helpful for you, too.

Oh, and hopefully some consumer watchdog group tweaks the hell out of the disingenuous jerks marketing the disgusting "Eating Right" brand. Yuck! Just don't ask me why I bought two of those dishes in the first place. :O